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Stopping The Run

If you look at NFL defensive rushing stats, you may think you have found yourself in the Twilight Zone.

But instead of surviving turbulence on a plane and suddenly seeing dinosaurs, your plane has taken you back 20 years. A time when the Bucs defense was actually feared.

(Well, at least the run defense.)

Looking at the team defensive stats at NFL.com, the team listed atop for fewest yards allowed per carry is the Bucs at 3.1. As bad as the Bucs defense has been since Chucky was jettisoned, it’s hard to believe the Bucs lead in any defensive category except for pratfalls.

It’s not just that the Bucs allow the fewest yards per carry. It’s who they have locked up. It’s a murderer’s row of some of the very best running backs in the league, guys who if you were told would someday be in the Hall of Fame, you wouldn’t scoff.

Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Todd Gurley, Alvin Kamara.

The Eagles lead the NFL in fewest yards allowed per game at 63 yards. The Bucs are No. 2 with 69.8. Joe doesn’t think it is a stretch to say what and who the Bucs have shut down is far more impressive than who the Eagles have tangled with.

This team is fun to cheer for because of our guys…including YOUR guy at QB. Isn’t that enough.

Why do you keep insisting on bringing Whiny Crybaby Jalen Ramsey. Yeah he’s good so what. He’s a major head case and locker room cancer. Patrick Petersen is more attractive.

More attractive still is let’s not panic…our secondary is YOUNG…babies…lets see what Davis brings to the party we have two safeties who are ball hawks and one can legally blast people…Davis likes to hit…we MAY need another good player..we do NOT need any kind of head case or whiny me first crybabies. Was DJAX not enough?

Oh and btw who you cut to pick up Ramsey’s HUGE salary…that’s what he’s about..himself not winning..the cost to the Cap would be enormous.

As a team, at this point in the season, this is our identity! Does it need to spread through out the team…and it needs to began to spread tomorrow morning! I think players are buying in and believing in the process, it was never going to be EASY but we got to keep it trending up!!!

Talent wins period…. your character rants are entertaining but irrelevant…. nice guys always finish last while talented throat stompers hoist championships… hypocrite dungy the clown was nice yet won nothing his fellow god card playing career loser cancer93 proved to be the most selfish player in team history… sapp carried those backups you call legends. Hardly a nice guy but a proven throat stomping winner… character never trumps talent unless it’s fantasy land

Agree, bragging on the run stopping is a joke. Why would any team waste time running with the lousy coverage? Barkley was hurt early, so this is misleading. And not one of those RBs they’ve “stopped” is going to be in the HOF.

55 is cancer93 a career loser without a sapp…. 55 never won a single meaningful game without riding sapps coattails… if vince young of the bucs was so great why couldn’t he and barber at least win one playoff game without 99. Instead they just hung on too long collecting meaningless personal numbers without ever winning anything that mattered…. results are all that matter feelings are for the weak.

After this game there is a bye week then the titans and id they haven’t improved by then you really need to do something before the trade deadline two days later. I doubt they put Jalen Ramsey and Winston on the same team but at the team time it’s not like licht is willing to make playoffs type moves. Licht acts as if his main responsibility is signing his own guys to a second contract not actually winning and making the playoffs.

Pewter power says:
“it’s not like licht is willing to make playoffs type moves”

If the ‘playoff type move’ you are referring to is trading for Peterson or Ramsey midseason to shore up what is thus far, an obvious deficiency at CB – then you are apparently not really considering the COST of that kind of move.

Both players have contracts that end after next year with about $20M due between now and then. So even finding the necessary cap space would be difficult. But its the cost to even acquire either player (again – with only 1 1/2 years left under contract) that would really hurt this team in the long run.

It would probably take a 1st and a 3rd or somesuch to trade for either player. Jax has let it be known they would consider no less than two 1st rd picks for Ramsey…

The value difference between next year’s #12 overall pick and the #26 pick is huge. – In other words – it would be a bit “easier” to make such a move sitting on a 4-1 record…. Pretty tough to even consider mortgaging away a big chunk of your future sitting currently at 2-3…

This ain’t Madden. There are major real world ramifications involved when it comes to trading for an established star player.

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“Licht acts as if his main responsibility is signing his own guys to a second contract not actually winning and making the playoffs”

I hear LOTS of whining about our Bucs’ defense (from myself too sometimes), but I have to give Todd Bowles a LOT of credit for even tackling this gargantuan project. He could’ve been coaching the Bears’ defense right now (#1 last year), having a fanbase behind him who appreciates how hard it is to have a great defense in today’s NFL. But instead he CHOSE to coach a #31 Bucs’ defense (last year).

I’m personally convinced that TB’s a brilliant DC who just doesn’t have all the horses he needs RIGHT NOW to make his defensive schemes work as they should. We’ve had several key injuries early-on (White, JPP, Dean, Justin Evans) that’ve hurt, plus Ryan Smith getting suspended didn’t help. Kinda limits TB’s options when certain guys can’t (or don’t) step up to the plate?

I’m confident that we can beat the Panthers tomorrow IF both our offense AND defense step up. Panthers have played some good defense the last 3 weeks, but look who they’ve played: Cardinals, Houston & Jaquars … not the league’s most dominant offenses. Heck, the Jaquars put up OVER 500 total yards against them, and still lost, thanks to 3 TDs by McCaffrey & a fumble return by Burns.

Jaquars had THREE TOs (to 0 TOs for the Panthers) & couldn’t stop the Panthers rushing (27 carries for 285 yards). Jags had 83 offensive snaps to only 63 snaps for the Panthers … and still lost. They lost by 7 points (34-27) because of TURNOVERS & they couldn’t STOP THE RUN. Cardinals did exactly the same thing when they lost to the Panthers (gave up 173 yards rushing & had 2 TOs).

And that’s how you beat the Panthers: DON’T TURN THE FRIGGIN BALL OVER and STOP THEIR RUN to make them beat you with their passing ONLY. They don’t have the same elite receivers that the Saints & Rams do.

We’ll be in a battle for the NFC South basement with Atlanta after this game. I say we can firmly lock down the basement title. Licht has put together a real winning formula since he’s been here. The Glazers have no clue they got the worst GM in the NFL. Everyone will get paid, keep their jobs, and we’ll just keep losing. It’s the Glazer way.

unbelievable … Good point about Schiano. I’m sure that we’ve all seen that a bunch over the years … where a defense does great at stopping the run but gets eaten up by the pass.

Might be wrong, but I tend to think there are 2 primary factors in play. One is that a great run defense tends to be stouter in the middle (like Vea & Suh?), with very good ‘contain’ guys outside (like Gholston?). Not exactly the world’s greatest pass rushers more than likely. But secondly, the LBs in defense that’s run-focused also don’t seem to be as good in pass coverage (with a few exceptions). Kevin Minter is a good example I think. Very good at stuffing the run, but his pass coverage skills are just average. Kwon wasn’t very good IMO at stopping the run, but he was good in pass coverage (interesting that he’s now being used outside in SF instead of in the middle & seems to be doing very well … already has 4 PDs & 1 INT in 4 games.

Hopefully Devin White provides a lift in that regard whenever he comes back.

Obviously our secondary is what it is at this point. I don’t see us trading for anyone with our cap situation, so we’re just going to have to hope some of these young guys step up and improve with more playing time (which they should, but how long that will take is anyone’s guess).

“Licht acts as if his main responsibility is signing his own guys to a second contract not actually winning and making the playoffs”

Wouldn’t Kwon and Humphries still be here if that were the case???____________________________________

So pathetic you think you guys would know what your talking about sometimes….

In THIS system where is slow arse Humphries gonna play? Chris godwin plays in the slot and he’s never played outside receiver he’s not fast enough. And you honestly think knowing they were switching to a 3-4 they should overpay kwon? Guess only Bradley McDougald can price himself out of Tampa. With no money to pay Geraldine and in salary cap hell yeah they were gonna overpay those two guys…

Ita already bad enough we are barely using oj Howard and his back up is on the bench wasting away at 8 million and no one in the bucs organization sees a problem with that including the owners but this is why another year will go by that we wont make playoffs or likely play any meaningful games in December. All you do is make fun of players and the coach but nothing to say about the gm?

Unbelievable … I haven’t given up on this Secondary yet. Still think there’s talent there. Jamel Dean showed promise IMO, but has to stay healthy or he’s worthless to us. Sean Murphy-Bunting was drafted in 2nd rnd because he also had promise; he’s just coming around a bit slower that’s all (so did RoJo?). Heck they’re BOTH rookies, as is White; some pick it up faster than others, but like they say, it’s where you finish, not where you start.

For right now, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ryan Smith gets the call at outside corner, although his ‘time off’ may have hurt him. He’s got he most experience, and I think showed quite a bit of improvement in the second half of last year. He ended up with 6 PDs, 1 INT, 1 TFL, 1 FF & 1 FR in only 6 starts; plus 38 tackles (31 solo). He played very well against the Saints in Game 1 last year, and great against the Eagles in Game 2. Brent Grimes came back as a starter in Game 3, and Ryan didn’t start again until Game 12 against the Panthers (another Bucs’ win, even though Davis & Grimes were BOTH out). Started the next couple of games also until Davis came back.

Overall, he was as good as any of our CBs I thought (I know, not saying all that much). Fairly consistent in terms of PDs & tackles in the game that he started (more than I can see for some of our CBs). I think that Dean or SMB will ultimately beat him out later this season, but he still MIGHT be our best bet to start tomorrow.

ONCE AGAIN T M A X I PA D SHOWING ALL OF US HOW STUPID THIS NUT SOUNDS. DRRICK BROOKS DIDNT RIDE SAPPS TRAIN NEITHER DID BARBER RICE MCFARLAND LYNCH KELLY JACKSON AN OF COURSE THE OTHERS WHO HELPED US TAKE HOME THE SUPER BOWL. SAPP DIDNT DO IT BY HIMSELF BRO ITS NOT A ONE PLAYER SPORT. ITS A TEAM SPORT GEEZ YOUR SUCH A IDIOT. ITS SERIOUSLY BAFFLES ME HOW STUPID YOU ARE T.

Useless stat when you’re getting smoked through the air. Talk to me about stopping the run when we start keeping our opponents out of the end zone. VHIII needs to ride pine before he bankrupts the NFL for gifting fat contracts to WRs. Try stopping the pass this week (Todd Bowles) or else you’ll be running from the squatch. Panthers should’ve gashed the Bucs through the air a few weeks ago if it wasn’t for a completely inept Cam Newton under center.

You made a great point about the value of our #1 pick next year based on the teams current record and projected. It’s nice to get a completely different perspective. Well done.

On your point about resigning kwon and Hump, in your opinion, did those players fit into the new schemes ? If you look at the decision in the context of time frame, the team had cap issues which were exacerbated by not making a timely decision about McCoy. If they had cut McCoy lose earlier would that have impacted the teams decision to resign both or one of the two players?

Last, I recently read a breakdown on how a possible trade for Peterson could be accomplished and stay within the confines of the cap. One part of proposed trade, and one that’s overlooked, is the amount due to Peterson for this season is in the neighborhood of 7mil. Which in this proposal left the team under the cap by a few hundred k. The deal was for the #1 pick in next year’s draft straight up for the player.